Clodagh’s Potato Cakes

Television food and travel personality, beloved Irish chef and acclaimed restaurateur Clodagh McKenna brings her fans into her kitchen as she guides them through a year of cooking with Clodagh’s Kitchen Diaries: Delicious Recipes throughout the Year, published just in time for St. Patrick’s Day by Kyle Books.

Clodagh’s talents, lauded in her homeland, have also been praised in the U.S. Forbes magazine said, “McKenna is Ireland’s answer to Rachael Ray and Martha Stewart, a multi-talented food and home personality at the head of a fast growing media empire,” and Saveur called her “a natural cook, with her head straight on and a confident hand.”

In her new book, Clodagh begins each season with advice on what to eat and when, along with tips for preserving the harvest from your own kitchen garden or the local market. She gives readers a year’s worth of menus and recipes for all occasions, including St. Patrick’s Day.

Whether it’s writing a new menu for her restaurants, developing recipes for her bakery, or re-creating recipes from her travels around the world, Clodagh lives and breathes food. In Clodagh’s Kitchen Diaries, she will take readers along with her, to share in her culinary adventure.

Here’s a recipe from Clodagh’s Kitchen Diaries.

Potato Cakes

“You can make this the night before and then just reheat in the oven the next day.” – Clodagh McKenna

Cook the potatoes in a large saucepan of boiling salted water until tender. Drain, transfer to a bowl, and mash with a potato masher.

While the potatoes are still hot mix in the crème fraîche, egg yolk, mustard, and salt and pepper. Mix in the scallions, cheese and thyme.

Add 1 tablespoon of the flour to the mixture to help make the consistency suitable for rolling out and sprinkle the remaining flour on your work surface. Roll the potato mixture out to 2 inch thick using a rolling pin and cut it into circles using a 4-inch cookie or biscuit cutter.

Melt the butter in a frying pan and fry the potato cakes on both sides until golden brown.